


Shining, Shimmering, Splendid

by kdanger



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Canon Autistic Character, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Gen, but there's so much to explore beforehand too, distrust eventually gives way to helping each other, eventually I'll get to the shipping, more of enemies to vaguely helpful to friends to ??? really, other characters or ships to be added as they turn up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-19
Updated: 2016-06-26
Packaged: 2018-07-15 23:55:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7243969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kdanger/pseuds/kdanger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Satya's trust in Vishkar is fading, and sooner or later she's going to have to really question whether her employers are actually in the business of helping others that she desperately wants them to be. Lucio's happy to see one of Vishkar's stars leave their ranks, and has to weigh lingering resentment against his desire to help someone that Vishkar has hurt. They bicker and share knowledge and work together; maybe one day they'll figure out how to trust each other.</p><p>Hopefully not as dorky as the title implies.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I have not abandoned this fic, I promise! However it is on indefinite hiatus until sometime later this year because work has been taking a lot out of me and I really need to rest up. Hopefully I'll be able to update by December, if not sooner.

Satya has not slept well in the months since the favelas burned. The smoke, the debris, the little girl's ruined face greet her as soon as she reaches REM, and she can no longer count the number of times she's woken up trying to shake the images from her mind. Tonight is no different. She has been working hard, she's exhausted, she spent an extra hour in the gym to tire herself out and she has to wake up early tomorrow, as always. But she can't make herself want to sleep. To lie alone with her thoughts until she winds up in the fire dreams again is a terrible thought.

She paces her small apartment until she can't stand it anymore. The windows in the workers' housing are small and programmed not to open. Most of the people who live here aren't architechs, though. Satya rolls up the sleeve of her nightshirt and pulls on her tech glove. A quick change of settings opens the window, and after she hauls herself halfway out it, a few gestures give her a ladder up the side of the building. If she goes up to the roof, she'll have a view of the new construction in the city. Proof that Vishkar is doing the right thing here.

(Really, she's not sure she believes it when she tells herself that anymore.)

 

* * *

 

“Huh. That isn't part of the plan.” On a fire escape a block away, Lúcio frowns under the scarf tied over his face. A thin lattice of hard light has just bloomed up the side of one of the Vishkar housing buildings. If someone from Vishkar spots someone from his group...

He keys on his headset. “<Hey, Aleixo, Daniela. Got someone climbing up the side of Building A. Not one of ours. Keep going, I'm gonna see what they're up to.>” His comrades acknowledge and he clicks the headset off, getting an earful of static for his pains. Going to have to take a screwdriver to the damn thing. Again. Vishkar electronics aren't made to survive DIY repairs or modifications, and it's not like he can take stolen goods into the shop.

It takes him a little while to get into range-- he has to cross rooftops to keep out of the line of sight of the curfew cam drones patrolling at street level-- but the climber's ladder is still there. He pulls out the goggles he's been working on and zooms in. The Vishkar worker is standing near the edge. _Jesus, she's not a jumper, is she?_ Lúcio wonders in brief horror, but the woman just stands there. Looking at the city, apparently. Her face isn't properly visible but her posture is awkward and tense. He follows the direction she's facing to see what she might be staring at, and... huh. She's quite possibly looking out at the new construction with no small measure of misery.

Well, she can have her crisis of conscience up there. That's not going to be a problem for tonight's operation. Lúcio signals the others and moves on.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm assuming that Portuguese is Lucio's first language since he's from Brazil, and what he speaks when he's not talking to the rest of the cast (who all have English as a common language.) Also, given his alteration of the Vishkar sonic tech, he's clearly great with electronics. RESPECT
> 
> I don't know if Symmetra's left arm is armored or a prosthetic, but in her Vishkar uniform in the comic she's just wearing a glove, and I assume if she does lose the arm it will be later on, so at this point in the timeline it's still a glove.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Their eyes meet well before they meet each other properly.

Satya looks out across the police line at the protestors. There’s a definite sense of deja vu, and then it hits her, of course she remembers this, she faced the same thing when Vishkar had just arrived in Rio. There are more people now, though, more organized, and… she understands them a bit more than she did the first time. They’ve been coming here for months, after all. The company has created many opportunities for them, health and order… but at a price paid in fire and death.

She’s no longer sure whether the police are there to protect her and her colleagues from the protestors, or the other way around.

The protestors’ shouts are mostly in Portuguese, and the bits of English are drowned out by the overwhelming noise of the crowd. Her toes curl and uncurl in her boots. She can’t stand it out here, parked outside with the other architechs as a show of solid strength while they wait for their superiors to come out and give a speech. She can’t fidget, she has to stand like a statue, but she desperately needs to  _ move _ , to sublimate off some of the energy that the crowd is flooding her mind with. She wants to run inside, to put on a headset and muffle out the noise and to dance until the overload leaves her body, but she can’t just turn and flee. Sanjay was terribly, ominously embarrassed the first and only time she pulled something like that. Instead she settles for folding her arms behind her back and tapping her fingers rapidly against her forearms.

And then something changes-- the energy is still there, but it’s beginning to organize. Music has begun to play over the roar of the crowd. The disorganized shouting gains a beat, a rhythm. The crowd resolves into something that claps, stamps, shouts in time and it’s… bearable. Satya doesn’t realize that she’s started to rock gently in time, clearing her head to the music, until one of the other architechs nudges her and hisses for her to stop it.

She scans the crowd again, focus partially restored. The music is growing louder and more uncomfortable, and she tries to pinpoint the source. It seems to be moving; she tracks it as best she can and suddenly the crowd parts, admitting a small man on beat-up rollerblades to the front of the picket line. He’s holding up--  _ what? That’s one of ours! _ a handheld speakergun. For a split second she catches his eyes, but immediately looks away. As Satya watches the man circles and brakes in front of the crowd, holds the speakergun aloft, and cuts off the music.

The crowd amazingly, goes quiet. The man hits a switch and begins to speak, using the piece of highly sophisticated, expensive,  _ stolen _ technology in his hand as nothing more than a megaphone. That detail eats at her. How has nobody called that out yet? Why are they letting him wave Vishkar property in their faces?

He's started speaking already, she realizes. She tries again to focus. “--for a corporation to govern a city! Vishkar has overstepped its bounds and overstayed its welcome and we will! Not! Accept it!” He's an animated speaker, and his brown locs bounce with every gesture. He sweeps his free arm out, taking in the crowd. “You all know me as a musician, as DJ Lúcio. But I got more than music to amplify right now. I refuse to stay quiet in the face of tyranny and I am not gonna stop until all our voices are heard and the Vishkar Corporation is sent packing!” He punches the air. “Free Rio!”

A shout goes through the crowd, and then Lúcio is giving others turns with the megaphone. Satya isn't listening again. The board of directors are due out any minute now. The crowd will have no choice but to quiet down then.

Sure enough, the wide front doors of the Vishkar Building swing open. A voice comes over Satya’s headset. “Sonic crowd control deployment in sixty seconds. Enable negation on her headset now.” As one, Satya and the other employees reach up and fiddle with their headset controls. The crowd shrinks back, covering their ears; they know what that means. There are screams of fear. But Lúcio looks only more determined, and says something to the people closest to him. They're not shrinking back. They're digging in bags and pockets, bringing out their phones.

Security is out now, two men with bulky speakerguns, bigger and more grimly colored than the hacked prototype Lúcio is holding. Satya braces herself. Her headset will protect her from the waves debilitating effects, but it's still going to be incredibly unpleasant. She sees a couple of executives walk out now, between the guards. One of them gives the signal--

And nothing happens.

Lúcio is holding his own speakergun aloft again, now pointed at the building. There's a low whine, but no devastating noise. Satya’s impressed despite herself: he’s actually interfering with the crowd control. “You can't silence us like that anymore,” he shouts over the unnatural quiet. “But the whole world's gonna know you tried!”

And suddenly Satya realizes why the people at the front of the crowd have their phones out. Without the Vishkar riot control systems, they're filming.

And just like that everything descends into chaos. The crowd presses forward. Everyone is shouting, on both sides of the police line. Some of the techs around her mill around anxiously.

Satya can't take the crowd anymore. She turns and flees inside.


	3. Chapter 3

“Mmmnf. Alô?” Lúcio slides halfway out of bed to grab his phone off the floor. The ringer is far too loud to ignore.

“Lúcio! Get up! They’re getting rid of Vishkar! We won!” It’s Daniela. Lúcio can’t make out the next bit of what she says, she’s speaking too fast, but he’s awake and instantly alert. He pulls out his battered laptop and pulls up the news. “Iris’ brother over in City Hall told her, it hasn’t hit the news yet. The government’s tired of having a foreign corporation try to take their place. They’re gonna kick them out!”

It's been months of hard work, spending time at the picket lines, meeting with press and city officials. Lúcio has been getting more and more gigs, speaking as well as playing, and he's seen his old life-- working at his cousin's electronics shop, playing at block parties and the occasional larger gig-- get completely rolled over by this new world. And now they’ve won, and something even newer is going to come crashing over it like the next big wave. He feels hope, but also apprehension.

Daniela’s still talking. “This is amazing,” Lúcio says finally, when she pauses for air. “What are we doing now?”

“Officially, nothing-- officially, we don’t know yet. We’re gearing up to deal with the press though. Hope you’re up for some speeches, Mr. Face of the Movement. There’s probably gonna be some unofficial parades, too, and by probably I mean we’re working on it.”

“Okay, cool, getting up now. I am gonna need a LOT of coffee today.”

Daniela promises to call back soon and hangs up. Lúcio gets dressed, starts the water heating, and leans out the window looking out over his city. His, and everyone’s, and not Vishkar’s. They’ve done it.

Their work has just begun.

 

* * *

 

Satya gazes out the tinted window of the car, out across the bright streets she’s brought into being. Vishkar gave the people light, gave them order, but… she knows that Vishkar has taken away as well.

How can they be driven out like this, though? Their government contacts have turned a cold shoulder. The people call for freedom, the government calls for the ability to do its own job. Never mind that Vishkar has done their job better than they could. Never mind stability.

Even so, as Sanjay rants on about the exact same things she’s thinking in the front seat, Satya can’t help but feel uncomfortable. They sound so different outside her head. She believes in order, in truth, in light. But she can’t avoid the knowledge that they’ve brought other things here.

There are people crowding the sides of the streets as the small fleet of cars proceeds out. It’s not the whole company, of course, but the executives and the architechs are making a symbolic exit while the rest of the company packs up. The car reduces the shouts from outside, but it still feels like the noise is pressing in on them. And in some places, the crowd is, too. The police try to hold them back, but the occasional thrown fruit makes contact. A kid breaks out and runs up to one of the cars ahead with a can of spray paint, only to be yanked back by the collar of her hoodie at the last second by her friend.

Satya doesn’t have to stay unflinching for this-- nobody can see into the car. So she keeps her eyes down, molds a ball of light in her palm to keep the noise at bay. She flips it through different shapes, tiny architectural models, defense modules, a miniature sonic generator. She wonders how Lúcio the thief managed to modify one to turn back a crowd control pulse. Apparently the government had paid Vishkar back the cost of the device in a settlement rather than returning it, denying knowledge of its whereabouts. Officially, that would be the end of it; unofficially, she knew someone was going to wind up with a mission to get it back.

Someone else, she hopes. Truth be told, she’s ready to leave Rio di Janeiro. It has become distracting here. She’s ready to move on to a location where she won’t feel so conflicted.

Lost in thought, she flicks the ball of light back into abstract shapes, then finally just a ball again, bouncing back and forth with each small hand gesture. As the Vishkar Corporation turns out of the city and onto the highway headed to the airport, Satya doesn’t realize that she’s still bouncing her light back and forth to the beat of the music that echoes over the crowds behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still assuming Lucio's speaking Portuguese for now. I think I'm gonna deal with different languages thusly: on one language when there's more than one language in a scene, no brackets in a scene with only one language being spoken.
> 
> YES THEY'LL MEET FOR REALS SOON I PROMISE


End file.
